Champ188

Cooper is definitely a fine young man. Friendly, polite, etc. Easy to see he has good parents pointing him in all the right directions. There was definitely a football jig bite yesterday on runouts and bluff ends but from SK down to Big Creek, it was just plain dangerous to try and sit out there. And oh yes, if you run a royal blue-and-black BassCat and were running upstream between Big Creek and Campbell Point about 11 a.m. yesterday, you either need to cut back on the testosterone supplements or you're just a card-carrying idiot. Either way, please learn to drive a boat before you kill someone. Did have a very good fish smack my Plopper and hook up for about 10 seconds before just pulling off. Not a lake record or anything but from the strike and the short standoff we had, I'd guess around 6 pounds. It was fun while it lasted.

Yes, Ben, I'd like the daily text messages. That's a nice feature.

IL Fisherman, if you want a really good one-on-one tutorial when you get those units, hire Don House for a teaching guide trip. He's a guru on Humminbirds and is located at Blue Eye.

Just hush, QB. We're trying to get a shallow fall buzz bait/spinnerbait/squarebill bite going and you're encouraging more of this "deep blue sea" nonsense.

She'd be even more awestruck every weekend except that I keep my awesomeness turned down so that I don't catch every single fish out from in front of her. (I'll be here all week, folks.)

Doesn't hurt their popularity at LOZ that Mark Wiese throws their stuff. If there's a better tournament fisherman on the lake, I've not met him. Besides, he's a good guy.

Bingo, BrowningCollector. That's Steven (Lurch) Scott during a Women's Bassmaster Event a few years back on Lake Dardanelle.

As Donna said, everything is awesome. High-quality stuff. The entire box went from my recliner chair (I opened every single bag) straight to the boat. Many thanks, my friend. About the worm idea ... I'm thinking something along the lines of a Zoom Trick Worm would be great.

Ryan, it was my pleasure and privilege to help a couple of your team members get out on the water Sunday. Just wish I had been a better guide. I think I got more out of the day than they did. Look forward to next time. I'm with Dave in feeling bad about where this thread went, and I apologize for whatever I may have contributed to its demise. Sorry to hit you guys with such a huge news flash, but I'm not the best at keeping my piehole shut sometimes. To join Darren in offering a little help (and I do mean a little), there's a dock bite starting in the White River arm and some of the creeks off the main channel. I will say that it takes a pretty accurate presentation to reach where these fish are holding, which is way back in the slips. Shaky head, finesse jig or white War Eagle spoon all will get you some bites. There's also a bit of a dragging bite (football jig) on bluff-end runouts. That's all I've got. For gosh sakes I wish fall would get here so we can all get our minds back on catching fish. I'm as guilty as anyone.

As an addendum to Donna's post, Connie was married to Wallace Jenkins, who some of you may remember from old Missouri BASS Federation days.

If losing a fishing tournament makes a kid want to turn to dope and booze, he/she has deeper issues. Same goes for adults, for that matter. Losing can be disheartening and may even seem earth-shaking for a kid, but that's where parents and coaches have to step up and help him/her see that losing sometimes is a fact of life and point them in the healthy way of taking what they can learn from it and leaving the rest behind. Maybe participation trophies have a place in early-childhood sports but there comes a time BEFORE ADULTHOOD for them to discover that score is kept in real life and they won't always be the winner. Some learn this on the football field, basketball court, baseball diamond. Others learn it in or nonsporting extracurricular activities. And now, some can learn it aboard a bass boat --- glitter sled or a JohnnyCraft flatbottom. Again, I see this high school fishing thing as very positive, as long as someone is there to point the kids in the right direction and not let them become disillusioned about everyone making it as a pro.

Tackle Warehouse is fresh out of Crock-O-Gator buzzers. Please direct any orders to champ188fishing.com.

I served as a boat captain this past Sunday for a University of Arkansas interclub tournament out of Mill Creek. The two young men who fished out of my boat were great kids and enjoyable to be around. But neither of them has any hope of fishing the Elite Series anytime soon. Fortunately, neither of them are considering it. They are both finance majors with their heads on straight. Speaking of having heads on straight, Donna and I met BearFisher last year in Fisher Creek. He's a very fine and intelligent young man and a pleasure to visit with.

I certainly agree that we don't need to be selling these kids on the idea of becoming bass pros. As Wrench pointed out, there's 40 jersey-clad wannabes in every town who, if not already divorced with 3 kids, soon will be after burying their family in debt. Another thing is that there are some murmurings from pretty reliable sources that FLW is about to go under. We've seen a migration in recent years of top FLW pros joing the Bassmaster Elite Series, and just last week, Mercury Marine announced that it is dropping sponsorship of all FLW circuits. So one can read between the lines that there will be only one circuit (plus Major League Fishing) in the very near future. So, while appearing glamorous to impressionable youngsters, the opportunities to make a living as a tournament pro are slim and getting slimmer.

It's all good now, Jim. I'm running Windows 10 and my default browser is set to the new Microsoft Edge, which is pretty wonky at times. Need to change my default browser to something more reliable. Apparently it just went cuckoo that one time I opened the link.

I see some good points made here ... other than beating dogs, which if I came across someone doing, one of us would get our butt whupped coz there would be a fight for sure. Is every kid on the level with the field? Not by a long shot. But that's true in any sport. High school golf ... some kids have better clubs than others. Some of their fathers/mothers started them playing at a very young age while others may not have taken it up until the past year or so. High school football/basketball/baseball ... some schools have better facilities in which to train and better coaches to teach them what it takes to win. Some kids are just more talented than others. Again, it might not be fair for one kid to be fishing from a Ranger Z-521 (even if they stole it from Vernon ) while another is fishing from a 14-foot JohnnyCraft with a 25-horse smoke blower on the back. But by gosh, LIFE isn't fair and the sooner these kids learn that, the better. I was fortunate to play on a championship football team in my senior year of high school, but before that I played on a lesser team that lost a lot of games. Guess what? I developed more character and work ethic from losing than I ever did from winning. All in all, I see this high school fishing deal as a good thing, especially if the team "coaches" ensure that sportsmanship, respect and character are at the forefront.

Something's really off on that update. The town locations are wrong (Oklahoma towns in Arkansas, etc.) and there seems to be no Kings River on Table Rock.

Sorry to hear about your plumbing issue. Sounds like no fun at all. Hope you get everything back in order quickly and that you guys enjoy your Colorado trip. Fishing should be better when you get back.

I've said this before but the problem starts where money enters the picture. I presume your club is fishing for fairly low stakes ... trophies, points toward year-end awards, etc. Once people start paying normal entry fees, they want to see living (or not) proof of everyone's catch. That's the mentality that's killing our fish and will continue to do so until said mentality is changed, which doesn't seem likely to me.

Are we thinking of the same Lake Sequoyah? It's only 389 acres.

I bypass the excuse clause for that one, abk. Ask Donna. Woo Pig.

Not me. Everyone knows I'm strictly CPR!

Few people catch more or bigger brown fish on TR than this guy. Read and heed. Oh yeah, Bobby. Try a Ned.

I like these. The concept sure makes sense.

About the hook ... was square in the "meat" on the tip of the middle finger (yeah, that one) ... straight down and deep. No chance for the line trick or of running it on thru and out. Strictly an ER job all the way. Thanks for all the concern. I'm good. Taking a couple of UA college kids out for a derby today. Will tell more about both the Sat-Sun trips this evening.